This article was originally published in the Cosmetics Business Beauty Consumers Trend Report. Receive your copy here.
With an intriguingly sophisticated eye for aesthetics and a passion for shelfie-worthy product, Gen Alpha’s fixation with skin care is not about what’s inside the bottle – not the ingredients or efficacy – it’s about how collectable, scroll-stopping and sharable the product is.
While this is of course at odds with how older generations select their skin care products, Alphas are in fact doing what tweens have always done.
From Pokemon cards to plushies, Lego figures to L.O.L. dolls, children have an innate desire to collect.
What’s different for this generation is that they have been online since they were born, and a world without social media and influencers has never existed for them.
Gen Alpha have been exposed to all kinds of products, presented in all kinds of ways, and the result is a gamified, collectable beauty experience that starts with the thrill of the acquisition and is followed by sharing and a sense of connection.
Jennifer Famiano, Director and beauty industry analyst at Circana says: “It’s a game in which the consumer is looking purely at aesthetics, with the measure of success being an enviable ‘shelfie’ for their ‘get ready with me’ video showing off their ‘collection’”.
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